Aurignacian
Template:Short description Template:See also Template:Bots Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox archaeological culture
The Aurignacian (Template:IPAc-en) is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the Levant, where the Emiran period and the Ahmarian period form the first periods of the Upper Paleolithic, corresponding to the first stages of the expansion of Homo sapiens out of Africa.<ref name="RGK">Template:Cite book</ref> They then migrated to Europe and created the first European culture of modern humans, the Aurignacian.<ref name="WBEHE" />
The Proto-Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian stages are dated between about 43,000 and 37,000 years ago. The Aurignacian proper lasted from about 37,000 to 33,000 years ago. A Late Aurignacian phase transitional with the Gravettian dates to about 33,000 to 26,000 years ago.<ref>Template:Cite journal. Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="WBEHE">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The type site is the Cave of Aurignac, Haute-Garonne, south-west France. The main preceding period is the Mousterian of the Neanderthals.
One of the oldest examples of figurative art, the Venus of Hohle Fels, comes from the Aurignacian or Proto-Gravettian and is dated to between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago (though earlier figurative art may now be known, such as at the Lubang Jeriji Saléh site in Indonesia). It was discovered in September 2008 in a cave at Schelklingen in Baden-Württemberg in western Germany. The German Lion-man figure is given a similar date range.
A Levantine Aurignacian culture is known from the Levant, with a type of blade technology very similar to the European Aurignacian, following chronologically the Emiran and Early Ahmarian in the same area of the Near East, and also closely related to them.<ref name="JJS">Template:Cite book</ref> The Levantine Aurignacian may have preceded European Aurignacian, but there is a possibility that the Levantine Aurignacian was rather the result of reverse influence from the European Aurignacian; this remains unsettled.<ref name="JKW">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Main characteristicsEdit
The Aurignacians are part of the wave of anatomically modern humans thought to have spread from Africa through the Near East into Paleolithic Europe, and became known as European early modern humans, or Cro-Magnons.<ref name="RGK" /> This wave of anatomically modern humans includes fossils of the Ahmarian, Bohunician, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures, extending throughout the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), covering the period of roughly 48,000 to 15,000 years ago.<ref name="RGK" /> In terms of population, the Aurignacian cultural complex is chronologically associated with the human remains of Goyet Q116-1, while the subsequent eastern Gravettian is associated with the Vestonice cluster.<ref>Template:Harvnb: "GoyetQ116-1 is chronologically associated with the Aurignacian cultural complex. Thus, the subsequent spread of the Vestonice Cluster, which is associated with the Gravettian cultural complex, shows that the spread of the latter culture was mediated at least in part by population movements."</ref>
The Aurignacian tool industry is characterized by worked bone or antler points with grooves cut in the bottom. Their flint tools include fine blades and bladelets struck from prepared cores rather than using crude flakes.<ref name="MellarsArcheology">Template:Cite journal</ref> The people of this culture also produced some of the earliest known cave art, such as the animal engravings at Trois Freres and the paintings at Chauvet cave in southern France. They also made pendants, bracelets, and ivory beads, as well as three-dimensional figurines. Perforated rods, thought to be spear throwers or shaft wrenches, also are found at their sites.
ArtEdit
Aurignacian figurines have been found depicting faunal representations of the time period associated with now-extinct mammals, including mammoths, rhinoceros, and tarpan, along with anthropomorphized depictions that may be interpreted as some of the earliest evidence of religion.
Many 35,000-year-old animal figurines were discovered in the Vogelherd Cave in Germany.<ref>Finds from the Vogelherd cave Template:Webarchive</ref> One of the horses, amongst six tiny mammoth and horse ivory figures found previously at Vogelherd, was sculpted as skillfully as any piece found throughout the Upper Paleolithic. The production of ivory beads for body ornamentation was also important during the Aurignacian. The famous paintings in Chauvet cave date from this period.
Typical statuettes consist of women that are called Venus figurines. They emphasize the hips, breasts, and other body parts associated with fertility. Feet and arms are lacking or minimized. One of the most ancient figurines is the Venus of Hohle Fels, discovered in 2008 in the Hohle Fels cave in Germany. The figurine has been dated to 35,000 years ago and is the earliest known, undisputed example of a depiction of a human being in prehistoric art.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Lion-man of Hohlenstein-Stadel, found in the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave of Germany's Swabian Alb and dated to 40,000 years ago, is the oldest known anthropomorphic animal figurine in the world.
Aurignacian finds include bone flutes. The oldest undisputed musical instrument was the Hohle Fels Flute discovered in the Hohle Fels cave in Germany's Swabian Alb in 2008.<ref name="flute" /> The flute is made from a vulture's wing bone perforated with five finger holes, and dates to approximately 35,000-40,000 years ago.<ref name="flute">Template:Cite journal</ref> A flute was also found at the Abri Blanchard in southwestern France.<ref name="OriginsRecon">Template:Cite book</ref>
GalleryEdit
- A 41,500 year-old decorated ivory pendant from Stajnia Cave (Poland) 1.png
Decorated ivory pendant from Stajnia Cave, Poland, c. 41,500 BP<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Floete Schwanenknochen Geissenkloesterle Blaubeuren.jpg
Bone flute, 35,000-40,000 years old
- Adorant, Geisenklösterle, Blaubeuren-Weiler, Alb-Donau-Kreis, Aurignacian culture, 35,000 to 45,000 years old, ivory - Landesmuseum Württemberg - Stuttgart, Germany - DSC02709.jpg
The Adorant of Geissenklösterle, Germany
- Geissenklösterle ivory 1.jpg
The Adorant of Geissenklösterle, reverse side with notches
- Venus of Hohle Fels URMU.jpg
The Venus of Hohle Fels figurine (height 6 cm), 35,000 BP
- MUT-9846.jpg
Horse figurine from Vogelherd Cave, Germany
- MUT127054.jpg
Animal figurine from Vogelherd Cave
- Chauvet´s cave horses.jpg
Chauvet Cave painting, France
- Aurignacian musical bow.jpg
Possible musical bow from Geisenklösterle, Germany
- Vogelherd cave lion 3.jpg
Lion head sculpture, Vogelherd cave
- MUT Löwe.JPG
Lion sculpture, Vogelherd cave
- Vogelherd Mammut 2006.jpg
Mammoth sculpture, Vogelherd cave
- Venus vom Galgenberg.JPG
Venus of Galgenberg, Austria
- Paleolithic ivory 1.jpg
Carved ivory from Brillenhöhle cave
- Engraved plaque from Lartet.jpg
Engraved plaque from Abri Lartet, France
- Blanchard plaque.jpg
Engraved plaque from Abri Blanchard, France
- Worlds Oldest Necklace (NBY 415421).jpg
Necklace from Castel Merle, France
- Pendants, Aurignacian culture, 31000-24000 BC, various materials - Cinquantenaire Museum - Brussels, Belgium - DSC08704.jpg
Aurignacian jewellery, Belgium
- Grotte d'Aurignac-Main en réserve-1962.jpg
A painting of a hand in the Cave of Aurignac, France
- Stone Age Jewelry, Fazael, Upper Paleolithic, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.jpg
Jewelry, Fazael, Israel, Upper Paleolithic.
- Stone Age Animal Carving, Hayonim Cave, 28000 BP.jpg
A carving of a running horse, Hayonim Cave, Levant.
ToolsEdit
Stone tools from the Aurignacian culture are known as Mode 4, characterized by blades (rather than flakes, typical of mode 2 Acheulean and mode 3 Mousterian) from prepared cores. Also seen throughout the Upper Paleolithic is a greater degree of tool standardization and the use of bone and antler for tools. Based on the research of scraper reduction and paleoenvironment, the early Aurignacian group moved seasonally over greater distances to procure reindeer herds within cold and open environments than those of the earlier tool cultures.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Sagaie base fendue.jpg
A bone point
- Lames aurignaciennes.jpg
Aurignacian blades
- Pointe à dos MHNT.PRE.2009.0.227.4 (2).jpg
Dufour bladelet
- Aurignacian Culture Bone Tools, Hayonim Cave, 30000 BP.jpg
Bone tools, Hayonim Cave, 30000 BP.
- Aurignacien - Feuersteingeräte. Fundstücke aus der Göpfelsteinhöhle in Veringenstadt.jpg
Aurignacian microliths
PopulationEdit
A 2019 demographic analysis estimated a mean population of 1,500 persons (upper limit: 3,300; lower limit: 800) for western and central Europe during the Aurignacian period (~42,000 to 33,000 y cal BP).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
A 2005 study estimated the population of Upper Palaeolithic Europe from 40 to 30 thousand years ago was 1,738–28,359 (average 4,424).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Association with modern humansEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The sophistication and self-awareness demonstrated in the work led archaeologists to consider the makers of Aurignacian artifacts the first modern humans in Europe. Human remains and Late Aurignacian artifacts found in juxtaposition support this inference. Although finds of human skeletal remains in direct association with Proto-Aurignacian technologies are scarce in Europe, the few available are also probably modern human. The best dated association between Aurignacian industries and human remains are those of at least five individuals from the Mladeč caves in the Czech Republic, dated by direct radiocarbon measurements of the skeletal remains to at least 31,000–32,000 years old.<ref name="MellarsArcheology" />
At least three robust, but typically anatomically modern, individuals from the Peștera cu Oase cave in Romania, were dated directly from the bones to ca. 35,000–36,000 BP. Although not associated directly with archaeological material, these finds are within the chronological and geographical range of the Early Aurignacian in southeastern Europe.<ref name="MellarsArcheology" /> On genetic evidence it has been argued that both Aurignacian and the Dabba culture of North Africa came from an earlier big game hunting Levantine Aurignacian culture of the Levant.<ref>Template:Cite journal, "Sequencing of 81 entire human mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) belonging to haplogroups M1 and U6 reveals that these predominantly North African clades arose in southwestern Asia and moved together to Africa about 40,000 to 45,000 years ago. Their arrival temporally overlaps with the event(s) that led to the peopling of Europe by modern humans and was most likely the result of the same change in climate conditions that allowed humans to enter the Levant, opening the way to the colonization of both Europe and North Africa. Thus, the early Upper Palaeolithic population(s) carrying M1 and U6 did not return to Africa along the southern coastal route of the "out of Africa" exit, but from the Mediterranean area; and the North African Dabban and European Aurignacian industries derived from a common Levantine source."</ref>
GeneticsEdit
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In a genetic study published in Nature in May 2016, the remains of an early Aurignacian individual, Goyet Q116-1 from modern-day Belgium, were examined. He belonged to the paternal haplogroup C1a and the maternal haplogroup M.Template:Sfn Haplogroups identified in other Aurignacian samples are the paternal haplogroups C1b and K2a;Template:Efn<ref name="Seguin">Template:Cite journal</ref> and mt-DNA haplogroup N, R, and U.Template:Efn
The Aurignacian material culture is associated with the expansion of "early West Eurasians" during the Upper Paleolithic (UP), replacing or merging with previous Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) cultures to which possibly relates the European Châtelperronian.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Evidence for at least some IUP legacy among later UP Europeans is the presence of Ancient East Eurasian ancestry (c. 17–23%) among the GoyetQ116-1 specimen, possibly represented by the preceding Bacho Kiro cave specimen, who, together with the Oase specimens, are closer to ancient and modern East Eurasian populations. The 38kya Kostenki-14 specimen from eastern Europe did not display evidence for IUP-affilated admixture.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
A 2023 study found that the Aurignacians are closely related to the Gravettians, Solutreans and later Magdalenians. Gravettian-producing peoples belonged to two genetically distinct clusters. Fournol in the west (France and Spain) and Věstonice in the east (Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Italy), both tracing their descent from producers of the earlier Aurignacian culture.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Solutrean cultures would merge and give rise to the Magdalenian culture. The genes of seven Magdalenians, the El Miron Cluster in Iberia, showed a close relationship to the Aurignacian population that lived in northern Europe some 20,000 years earlier. The analyses suggested that 70-80% of the ancestry of these individuals was from the population represented by Goyet Q116-1, associated with the Aurignacian culture.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures, became subsequently absorbed by the Epigravettian wave from Western Asia (Anatolia). In a genetic study published in Nature in March 2023, the authors found that the ancestors of the Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHGs) were populations associated with the Epigravettian culture, which largely replaced populations associated with the Magdalenian culture about 14,000 years ago, and which were more closely related to ancient and modern peoples in the Middle East and the Caucasus than earlier European Cro-Magnons.<ref name="Nature-2023">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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LocationEdit
EuropeEdit
Near-EastEdit
AsiaEdit
Lebanon/Palestine/Israel region
- Contained within a stratigraphic column, along with other cultures.<ref name="Langer">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Many sites in Siberia including around Lake Baikal, the Ob River valley, and Minusinsk.<ref name="Langer" />
- Potok Cave - Potočka zijalka (Slovenia).JPG
The entrance to the Potočka Zijalka, a cave in the Eastern Karavanke, where the remains of a human residence dated to the Aurignacian (40,000 to 30,000 BP) were found<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
- Aurignac-grotte-01.JPG
Entrance porch of the Cave of Aurignac
- מערת יונים.jpg
- Bacho Kiro Cave.jpg
Interior of Bacho Kiro cave
See alsoEdit
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NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
SourcesEdit
External linksEdit
- Picture Gallery of the Paleolithic (reconstructional palaeoethnology), Libor Balák at the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology in Brno, the Center for Paleolithic and Paleoethnological Research